IB13: X-Fusion Officially Launches Revel Enduro Fork

Entirely new for 2013, X-Fusion is launching an ultra exclusive golden nugget. Priced heads and shoulders above it’s competitors, the Revel is also claimed to outperform anything in the class.

Unfortunately, at a staggering retail of $1,776, the company will only be making 200 forks. So what makes this fork worth it’s weight in gold?

For years, riders have been clamoring for inverted forks but the difficulty in engineering a light weight and flex free chassis have kept most manufacturers from releasing single crown inverted product.

After years of development, X-Fusion believes they have discovered the golden ticket and their solution mimics the technology found in some dropper posts. What they’ve done is use stainless steel cylinders riding in three separate keyways along the length of the uppers and stanchion tubes to prevent rotating. They’ve dubbed this patented trilateral keyway design Gold-E-Locks.

Many riders will also be glad to note that X-Fusion has gone with a 20mm axle up front in order to increase the fork rigidity. The larger axle diameter also matches better with the Revels hard charging personality.

The forks new LockX 20mm axle also conceals a unique trick. When clamped, four wedges expand into the fork axle clamp, which further increases overall stiffness.

Someone pulled a crown race from this fork to get it ready for the show. It’s great to know these show ponies have been put through their proper paces outside.

Since the fork doesn’t have a arch, it’s being billed as a one-size-fits-all solution. With a 46mm offset, steering on your classic 26“ wheel is a bit faster, but X-Fusion Marketing Manager John Michael Haur claims it’s an easy adjustment. The offset on this fork was done in both the crown and the dropouts so that the steertube is not in line with the axle, which the company claims allows the fork to absorb square edged bumps more naturally.

The current fork tube guards were 3D printed but the final version will be carbon

Travel options are 120-140 for the 29er and 160 for 650B. Each fork will be hand assembled at X-Fusions HQ in Santa Cruz, Ca. By building each fork in house, rather than their Taiwanese factory, they can ensure the highest standards.

So while that $1,776 price tag (which is not coincidentally the year America declared it’s independence from Great Britain) may seem high, the combination of innovation and performance may well be worth the price for the 4.5 lb pogo stick.

Still not swayed? Their new flagship downhill fork and single crown fork will be available this October. The RV1 will be available for $1,449 with the Metric coming in at $999.

Also on display at the booth was a prototype dropper post we couldn’t discuss. Aside from the new golden stanchion treatment we also noticed a remarkable lack of cables.

^i imagine it should be the same cartridge internals as their vengeance with minor tweaks. It will be offered in black also.

Tim - 09/20/13 - 2:55pm

The thing about inverted forks for bicycles is not the lengths they go to get their stiffness up to (and in one case, beyond) that of ‘normal’ forks. Maverick: massive one-piece welded upper leg assembly, plus a 24mm thru-axle. That recent green ano inverted fork: Colleted upper leg- crown joint, and a carbon brake bridge looping up from the dropouts halfway up the fork to get over the tire. Cannondale: needle bearings instead of bushings. X-Fusion: keyed legs and a special dropout. German Answer: oval legs. Manitou: six-sided thru-axle (first introduced on the Millenium fork, I think).
The thing is that a lot of these things could easily be introduced on ‘normal’ forks and benefit them, too- but nobody does because people generally don’t care about getting any rigidity beyond standard designs.
Inverted forks are about uniqueness, being different from other riders, having something special and odd on your bike.

tsuful - 09/20/13 - 3:24pm

Well said Tim ^

Gold forks are nice but dont mach anything other then blac and while …

tsuful - 09/20/13 - 3:25pm

* black and white

chasejj - 09/20/13 - 4:04pm

The main advantages of USD (upside down forks are:
1) Less unsprung weight.
This is due to the suspension only having to deal with the 34mm tubes and whatever oil is down by the axle clamp vs. the entire weight of the leg casting and crown and oil. There is more to that answer if we are talking about coil and there is some other incedentals in the damping rods , but that is essentially it.
2) Potentially better seal life. This is due to the oil carrried above the seal and keeping the wipers and seals moist and pliable. Anyone ever seen what can happen to neglected forks seals will know this. Nobody neglects their forks right?
3) Their can be advantages to structural stiffness in certain directions, but this all depends on tube overlap, crown and such. A single crown bicycle fork would likely not show this benefit as much as maybe the DVO Emerald fork.

All that aside. I like this fork, but before I drop closs to $2G’s on a fork. I want some ride time on it or at least some feedback from some people I trust.
I have to imagine that the 200 units is a just the first run. Who would drop all that coin to develop this if you were only going to sell 200 units? You would have to be retarded to do that.

So great to see some inverted forks making it to the market. Hope this thing takes off! Why is everyone so shy to make the dual crown though?

Tim - 09/21/13 - 9:37am

@chasejj: Upside down fork lowers should in theory be lighter, but are they in fact, and if so, then how much does this really affect the suspension’s ability to react quicker? These are questions I’m unable to answer- to do so, someone would have to take off the lowers of both standard and upside down forks and weigh them, then explain what role the weight difference makes.
As for the other differences, those are definitely pluses of the inverted design, which should keep the seals bathed in oil, and also reduce fore-aft flex, especially when braking.
I also like that this fork has the legs tilted more forward- this makes the fork less susceptible to bobbing when sprinting, and more ready to react to head-on hits.

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